PICO RIVERA – It will cost you 60 percent more to wet your whistle or flush your toilet in Pico Rivera after a City Council decision to approve a four-stage increase Tuesday night.

Despite protest from speakers at the crowded council meeting, Councilman Ron Beilke said the increase is necessary to balance the Pico Rivera Water Authority’s $1 million operating deficit.

The rate will increase by 15 percent each year for four years, with small increases to keep up with inflation for six years after that.

For an average household, the monthly bill will go from $35 to $55.

“There are simply things that we have to do,” Beilke said. “We need to get our financial house in order.”

The city cited growing water costs, administrative costs and system upkeep as reasons for the rate hike.

The Pico Rivera Water Authority operates by borrowing about $1 million annually from the city’s General Fund, Interim Finance Director John Herrera said.

Rates don’t keep up with the cost of providing water to the authority’s 9,400 users, he said, and must meet an annual bond obligation of about $3.5 million a year. In addition, it must maintain a total reserve of about $1.3 million.

The bond obligation comes to about $40 million and was acquired in the early 1990s.

A water master plan is also in the works. That plan may recommend tens of millions of dollars in system renovations for new pipes and connections.

The city was required to mail notice of the possible change to water users, who were able to send in their name, address and their opposition to the rate increase. Of 9,400 users, only 467 responded with written “no” votes.

Councilman David Armenta, the only council member to vote against the measure, said he believed the process was unfair. Letters were sent out over the holidays and were too confusing for water users. No notices were sent in Spanish, and no tear-away form or envelope was provided for water users to mail.

“It was misleading and it was meant to be misleading,” Armenta said. “To me, that’s not playing fair.”

Armenta also criticized the city’s newsletter, the Profile, for not having mentioned the upcoming rate increase.

The city spent $35,000 in a publicity campaign to get the word out about a one-percent sales tax increase on the ballot in November. If not passed, the city said, $4.8 million in cuts would have been necessary.

Councilman Gregory Salcido voted in favor of the rate increase, but said he opposed the decision not to inform residents of the possible change through the Profile.

“On issues of such importance, we must do better,” Salcido said.

About 100 residents came to the meeting to voice their opinions on the increase. Not one of the about six who spoke supported the hike.

Julie Ann Beltran said she is on a fixed income and won’t be able to afford the increase.

“It’s going to be devastating for me and all my neighbors,” Beltran said.

Others said they were against the timing of the increase, just months after the passage of the one-percent sales tax increase by the city. An increase to many of the city’s user fees was also on Tuesday’s agenda, but was continued to a February meeting.

“It’s more than just a little thing,” Consuela Lyra said.

Some claimed the notice did not meet legal requirements, including Raul Murga, founder of the Web site for C-TIP, the Pico Rivera Community for Truth in Politics.

“The notice that was handed out to the residents, I believe, was flawed,” Murga said.

City Attorney Arnold Alvarez-Glasman said he had carefully reviewed the notices sent, and all met the legal requirements for surveying rate-payers.

Murga said he plans to challenge the rate change with a ballot initiative.

The initiative probably won’t come in time to stop the first increases, however, which will go into effect within a few months, City Manager Chuck Fuentes said.

“Obviously it’s a tough sell and we don’t really want to have to do it, in these economic lean times,” Fuentes said. “But we’re like everybody else. We have to pay our bills, too.”

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